


Like the Sky

by cornbreadkent



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Flirting, Keith teasing Lance a little too much, Kissing, Listen... they are in love, M/M, Misunderstandings (which are cleared up dw), Roommates ;)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-09-11 23:07:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16861777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cornbreadkent/pseuds/cornbreadkent
Summary: Lance lets out a sigh.“He’s just, like… overwhelming.”“Keith can be pretty intense.”“You have no idea,” Lance says. “This morning I got up at, like, eleven, and Keith still wasn’t awake so I had to make the coffee, and I did, and I was like halfway through my cup when Keith walks in, obviously still half asleep, wearing my sweatpants and my shirt, and just says, ‘morning,’ and I’m like, ‘that’s my shirt,’ and he’s like, ‘yeah,’ and then he walks up next to me and puts his hand around mine and I’m like, what the fuck, but I don’t do anything, and then he drinks the rest of my coffee. I was still holding the cup, Pidge, but he was also holding the cup because his hand was on top of mine, and then he just drinks my coffee.” Lance puts his head in his hands. “What the fuck, Pidge.”





	Like the Sky

**Author's Note:**

> hey watch this *writes a fanfic for the first time in years instead of doing very important work for my finals*

Sometimes Lance misses the simpler days, before Lance started to feel like he’d swallowed sand every time Keith gave him any semblance of attention. These were also the days before the two of them moved in together.

Much simpler days.

Hunk and Pidge tease Lance about his complaining, but it isn’t his fault, okay!? It’s not like Lance retroactively decided that, yes, he would enjoy being in the constant presence of the biggest crush of his life. At the _time_ , he was just happy to be able to move out of his cramped dorm room to a (relatively) roomy apartment. And, hey, bonus, Lance got to move in with one of his friends! No more worrying about if he would have to go through another situation like he had with his dormmate, which was awful and led to Lance snapping more than a few times. And then, about two months in, Lance came face to face with the realization that he was in love with his new roommate. Surprise!

In one sense, it’s amazing to be able to live with your crush, because people inherently want to be near their crush, right? And now Lance gets more time with Keith than anyone else. In another sense, it feels like a test from God. Lance is constantly becoming flustered in his own home because of things that Keith doesn’t even realize he’s _doing_ , like _walking around without a shirt on_. Lance’s heart is a fragile thing, and Keith is going to kill him.

Anyway. Present time, Lance is attempting to study in the living room because he can never seem to get anything done in his bedroom. He was doing about as well as could be expected, but then Keith joined him.

It was all fine and jolly at first, or as jolly as studying could be, when Keith asked if he could join. Lance said sure, and moved his stuff so that it only covered the right side of the table, and Keith could have the other side. Lance expected that Keith was trying to do something similar to writing a paper, like Lance was attempting to do, and would need the space for it. But instead of sitting on the other end of the table and setting up his stuff there, Keith comes back with a novel and then sits right next to Lance. Right next to him. Like, close. To him.

Lance is now having significantly more trouble getting his studying done.

He considers leaving, maybe to the library which he would have to use to print out his essay anyway, but this essay isn’t due until Wednesday (it’s only Monday), and Lance’s left knee is touching Keith’s right knee, and Lance is vibrating in a mostly pleasant way, so… he decides to just keep working where he is, for the moment. Maybe not the best decision for a college student to make, but Lance is gay for Keith, so no one can blame him.

Keith is gay, by the way. Lance kind of wishes that he didn’t know that nice little fact so that he would be able to persuade himself out of pining helplessly for as long as he has, but at the same time it’s _really nice_ to know that Keith is gay. Lance is full of contradictions lately.

“Watcha readin’?” Lance asks, momentarily giving up on his assignment.

Keith looks up from the book to Lance, and his eyelashes are so long and his hair is tied back and he’s wearing the shirt that is a little too big for him and hhhhngjfhfs

“What?” Lance says, when he realizes that Keith gave his answer, zero percent of which was processed by Lance.

Keith rolls his eyes. “Bright Lights, Big City.”

“Oh, damn. Is it any good?”

Keith shrugs. A piece of hair comes loose from behind his ear. Lance really wants to touch it. “It has literary value, I guess. But I kind of really hate the main character.” Keith sighs and leans back into the couch. “That’s how it usually works, though. For some reason all these critically acclaimed books have characters that you’re supposed to hate.” Keith smiles. R.I.P. Lance McClain. “It’s kind of funny in this case, though, because in a lot of ways this book is an auto-biography.”

“Uh, yeah. Funny.”

Keith leans forward again, but now he’s leaning over Lance. Lance, who can now see Keith’s collarbones down his shirt and smell the shampoo he uses.

“What about you?”

“Uh,” Lance says, not understanding.

“Your essay. What are you working on?”

“Oh. Oh! Essay. Yes.” Lance clears his throat and looks over Keith’s shoulder to glance at the essay Lance had been working on, which he has suddenly forgotten the topic of. “Um. I have to write an essay about the sacred texts of a major religion. I chose Hinduism, but…” Lance sighs. “Hinduism is, like. Complicated. I’m thinking about changing to something else, but the essay is due on Wednesday, so that doesn’t give me much time for research. And even though it’s complicated, I chose it because it’s the most interesting to me.”

Lance glances at Keith and realizes he has been looking at Lance instead of Lance’s laptop, and Lance suddenly realizes that they’re close. Like, yeah, he just had a dilemma about Keith being close when he first sat down, but now Keith is quite literally leaning into his space and Lance can see all of the faded acne scars on his cheeks and, oh yeah, he can count Keith’s individual eyelashes, but Lance knows himself well enough that he is avoiding looking too closely at Keith’s eyes this close up because it would probably stop his heart, so he looks at the lock of hair that was too short for Keith to pull back and is now slowly falling back in front of his eyes. Lance does his best not to imagine pushing it back, but, as mentioned earlier, he has a fragile heart, and he has an even weaker mind.

For a few seconds, Keith just. Stays there. His eyes scan Lance’s face to the extent that Lance almost asks if there’s something on his cheek, but then their eyes lock. Keith looks right into Lance’s eyes, and Lance can’t do anything but look straight back (straight, ha).

Then Keith makes a noncommittal noise to acknowledge whatever Lance said (he can’t actually remember what he said, anymore) and leans back to continue reading. Lance slowly lets out the breath he was holding and tries not to think about what happened even as he feels his face heat up.

Lance holds back a sigh. The simpler days have gone.

* * *

Lance is jolted into hyper-awareness when the chair across from his screeches in protest as it’s pulled backward. Keith, who is now occupying said chair, says, “Stop loitering." 

“Wow,” Lance says, putting down his phone. He had been scrolling mindlessly through Twitter for about an hour now. “I don’t get any sort of special treatment as your friend?”

Keith looks tired and unaffected. “No.”

Lance gestures to the laptop, notebook, and reading material all spread out in front of him. “What about as a poor soul just trying to get through college?”

Keith smiles this time, but alas. “Also no. You’ve been on your phone for the past hour.” Lance pouts, but doesn’t say anything. He’s really only there because he wanted to wait for Keith’s shift to be over. “How about a coffee?”

Lance pouts harder, leaning his elbows onto the table and holding his head in his hands. “Keeiith, I don’t have enough money to justify spending it, you know this.”

“If you don’t tell, I won’t either.”

Lance looks up. “Are you offering to sneak me some coffee?”

Keith smiles again, this time with teeth. Lance is momentarily stunned. “Sure. Vanilla latte?” Keith stands and begins to walk away as he asks, already knowing the answer.

“Keith Akira Kogane, you are my hero,” Lance says, meaning every word. Not that anyone has to know that.

Lance sighs as he turns back to his work. If Keith is going to the effort of sneaking him a drink, he could at the least try and actually get some work done. He’s been struggling with his statistics homework, and he really just wants to have it over with. But first, Lance’s attention is grabbed by his phone lighting up with a text message from Hunk.

**my main man**

            Dude guess what

**lancer**

            dude did something happen

**my main man**

            [Attached_image]

Lance slaps a hand over his mouth so as not to scream.

**lancer**

            ghjasdjkjdklasjgdgaklf

            why didnt you tell me you were gonna get a tattoo???????????//

**my main man**

            I didn’t plan it out or anything, it just kind of happened.

            If it helps, you’re the first other person to know about it B)

**lancer**

            bro.. im honored

            but still kind of hurt

**my main man**

            :(

**lancer**

you can make up for it by letting me know when you plan on getting a tattoo

            BEFORE you actually get it next time

Lance looks up at the sound of a cup being placed in front of him. Keith raises an eyebrow at the excited look on Lance’s face.

“Hunk got a tattoo,” Lance says before Keith can even ask. Lance pulls up the picture Hunk sent him and shows it to Keith, and together they marvel over the blue Samoan pattern encircling Hunk’s left upper-arm. Lance had known that Hunk wanted to eventually have this tattoo because of how important his tribe’s history is to him, but Lance had not known that Hunk would decide to get this tattoo first, especially considering its size.

“It looks really cool,” Keith says.

“Uh, _yeah_ , it _is_ really cool, except that Hunk didn’t even tell me he was planning on getting a tattoo anytime soon, let alone today! We had a _code_ , Keith. A _bro_ code. And he _broke it_.”

“Tragic,” Keith deadpans, raising an eyebrow at him.

Sheepishly, “Thanks for the coffee.”

“Mhm. Drink up, my shift is ending early today. Unless you were planning on staying?”

“No, sir!”

* * *

“Huuuunk, why are you so mean to me.”

“I’m extremely nice to you. It’s literally three in the morning and I haven’t kicked you out of my apartment yet.”

Lance pouts harder and sniffles a little. “But you’re making fun of me.”

“Well, buddy, you’ve been complaining about this problem for upwards of a year now.”

This comment makes Lance pause when it normally wouldn’t. It’s 3am and Lance is all “woe is me” at someone else’s apartment, whining about his life while Hunk is just trying to bake some of his midnight cookies. Lance wasn’t worried about keeping Hunk up when he came over, because Hunk and Pidge don’t usually head for bed until after four in the morning, but does it really matter? Lance is still being a nuisance. He should just leave, but he’s starting to cry like an actual child, so he hides his face in his arms, which rest on the counter. His breath shakes a little as he exhales, but he keeps any tears from actually falling.

After a few minutes, when Lance’s emotions are somewhat under control, he takes a deep breath and stands up. “See ya,” he says, giving Hunk a salute. Hunk gives Lance a shocked look for a split second before Lance rounds the corner, walking backwards toward the front door.

He’s reaching a hand out for the knob when he’s intercepted by none other than Pidge. Even though she lives here, Lance is surprised to see her. As far as Lance knew, Pidge had been playing World of Warcraft non-stop for a few days in an attempt to get a legendary helm before her brother did.

Pidge starts to tug Lance back to the kitchen. “Um?”

“Hunk, you made him cry,” she says when they arrive.

Lance squawks. “I didn’t cry!”

Pidge levels lance with a look and then turns back to Hunk, who looks very upset. Pidge pushes Lance to stand in front of Hunk and says, “Say you’re sorry.”

Hunk is already moving in for a hug, which is as encompassing as every other hug that Hunk has given him before. Illogically, Lance can feel himself tearing up again.

“I’m sorry, buddy. I didn’t know you felt so bad.” That kind of stings, because Lance had told Hunk exactly how bad he felt and Hunk just hadn’t believed him. But Hunk sounds genuinely apologetic, and Lance can’t just not forgive him.

“It’s fine, dude,” Lance says into Hunk’s shoulder. Lance can’t hug back because his arms are being pinned to his sides.

Hunk pulls back. “Do you want to talk about it?”

I already talked about it, Lance wants to say. “Nah. It’s fine. Thanks, though.”

“Lance is going to play Diablo with me,” Pidge says, and grabs Lance again so that she can pull him to the living room. After quickly setting up the Nintendo Switch and handing Lance the spare joy-cons, Pidge says, “You may have already told Hunk what’s wrong, but you haven’t told me. So, spill.”

Lance selects his character and then watches as the game loads before answering. “It’s nothing specific that Keith did,” he says, which isn’t really true. That’s all Lance planned to say, but Pidge encourages him to continue with a, “Yeah?”

Lance lets out a sigh and sinks into the couch as much as he can. This proves to be a significant amount, as Pidge and Hunk’s couch is very soft. “He’s just, like… overwhelming.”

“Keith can be pretty intense.”

“You have no idea,” Lance says. “This morning I got up at, like, eleven, and Keith still wasn’t awake so I had to make the coffee, and I did, and I was like halfway through my cup when Keith walks in, obviously still half asleep, wearing _my_ sweatpants and _my_ shirt, and just says, ‘morning,’ and I’m like, ‘that’s my shirt,’ and he’s like, ‘yeah,’ and then he walks up next to me and puts his hand around mine and I’m like, what the fuck, but I don’t do anything, and then he drinks the rest of _my_ coffee. I was still holding the cup, Pidge, but he was also holding the cup because his hand was on top of mine, and then he just drinks my coffee.” Lance puts his head in his hands. Neither he or Pidge are playing the game, anyway. “What the _fuck_ , Pidge.”

“Hear me out, dude,” Pidge says, placing a hand on Lance’s shoulder. “I think Keith might like you, too.”

Lance shakes his head. “No.”

“Lance, I know you don’t think you’re good enough or whatever, but I—”

“ _Pidge_. He has a date. On Wednesday.”

There’s silence, and then, “ _What_?” Lance looks up to see Hunk, who had let out the exclamation, standing at the end of the couch.

“You’re shitting me,” Pidge deadpans. “There’s no way.”

“With a guy from his American Lit class,” Lance adds. “They’re going to the new grilled cheese place.”

Pidge stands up and leaves, and Hunk takes her place on the couch. “What is Pidge doing?” Lance asks.

“I’m calling Shiro,” Pidge calls from the hallway.

“Oh, my God, please do not,” Lance begs. “It’s three in the morning. He isn’t going to pick up. And what are you planning on saying, anyway? Keith can date who he wants.” There’s silence, but then Pidge comes back in and sits on the other side of Lance.

“Ugh,” she says.

“Yeah,” Lance agrees. He stays over for the rest of the night.

* * *

The next day, a Sunday, Lance gets back to his apartment at around nine in the morning. He isn’t expecting Keith to be awake until closer to noon, but he’s swooping in on Lance before he can even close the door.

“Are you okay?”

Lance blinks. “What?”

Keith frowns. Lance wants to smooth out the crinkle between his eyebrows. “You look like you’ve been crying.”

“Uh, no, no crying. I just fell asleep at Pidge and Hunk’s.” Keith brings a hand up and places it on Lance’s cheek, but Lance uses his own hand to pull Keith’s away. “Thanks for worrying, but I’m fine, Keith. Promise.”

Keith’s eyebrows just crinkle further. He looks frustrated. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, Keith.” Lance can tell that isn’t a good enough answer for him, so he says, “I was kind of upset last night, but I talked about it with Hunk and Pidge and I don’t really want to talk about it anymore. It wasn’t anything too important, I was honestly making a bigger deal out of it than it was, and Hunk and Pidge helped me feel better.” Lance tries for a smile. “If I still look upset, it’s just because I’m tired. I didn’t fall asleep until five.”

Keith looks at him for a few more seconds and then says, “Well, have some coffee. And breakfast. I made coffee but not breakfast.”

“Thanks, dude, but I’m actually gonna pass out for a few more hours.”

Keith nods. “Yeah. Okay. Good idea.” Lance brushes past Keith and heads to his room.

* * *

The next few days kind of suck. Lance goes to work, goes to class, and tries to stay out of the apartment as much as he can. It’s not that hard to do since Keith has his own job and classes to focus on. But Lance is there when Keith comes back from his date.

“How was it?” Lance says, forcing a smile.

Keith shrugs. “It was good. We’re going to meet up again next week.”

“Oh. Okay. Cool.”

Lance excuses himself a few minutes later.

* * *

Lance is studying in his room the next day at seven in the evening. Even though it’s hard for him to focus in his room, it’s currently harder for him to focus in the living room because Keith is out there. Lance has trouble keeping up a happy front lately, and he knows that Keith can tell, so that’s another reason to avoid him. Lance knows that every time Keith asks if something is wrong he’s just being a good friend, but Lance obviously can’t tell Keith the actual reason that he’s upset, and he can only make something up or lie about being fine so many times.

At 7:35pm, Keith bursts into Lance’s room.

Lance jumps, but doesn’t drop his laptop like the last time this happened. “Dude! You—”

“Shiro called,” Keith announces. He then stares at Lance like this is supposed to mean something. Lance looks back helplessly.

“Is something wrong?”

“ _Yes_ ,” Keith spits out. He storms over to Lance’s bed and pushes the papers Lance was using to do his homework out of the way before sitting down in the space they used to be. Lance puts his laptop on the ground and unfolds his legs so that he can face Keith, who seems to want Lance’s full attention.

Lance is kind of scared, but he doesn’t think Keith is angry at him. Angry at Shiro, maybe? But Keith is making the face he makes when he’s trying to string words together, so Lance doesn’t say anything just yet.

Keith’s expression softens a bit before he says, “I’m sorry, Lance.”

Keith doesn’t look like he’s going to elaborate, so Lance says, “Sorry for _what_? Keith, what happened?”

“I’m not dating anyone.”

Lance just looks at Keith. At first this doesn’t seem to have any correlation to what Keith had said before, but then Lance remembers that Pidge wanted to call Shiro when Lance was at her apartment a few days ago. He starts to get a little light-headed. Did Pidge actually call Shiro to tell him about Lance’s breakdown? And then did Shiro call Keith and tell him what Pidge said? About _why_ Lance was so upset? Does Keith _know_?

“Did it not work out with the grilled cheese guy?” Lance means for it to sound like a joke, but he can’t get any feeling behind it, even half-hearted.

“Lance. I was never dating the grilled cheese guy. We were working on a group presentation.” Keith puts his hand on top of Lance’s. Lance looks at their hands, one on top of the other. There are a million thoughts going through his head at the same time.

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I don’t want you to misunderstand.” Well, Lance has no fucking clue what’s happening, so Keith isn’t doing very well at that. “Lance. Look at me.”

Keith’s eyes burn into Lance when he looks up. Keith’s eyes are gray, but they’re burning. Smoke. Lance feels like he’s suffocating, like he’s swallowed sand.

“I like you, Lance.” Keith’s eyes pin Lance to where he is, hold him in this exact moment, but it doesn’t feel real. “I have for a long time. And…” Keith takes a slow breath in and out. “I’ve known that you’ve liked me for a while, too.”

Lance feels like he’s been punched. This is too much information. “What?”

“You’re not that subtle, and I teased you a lot. I shouldn’t have, but you’re so easy to fluster. It’s really cute.”

“Keith, hold on, I can’t understand.” Shiro called Keith. Keith isn’t dating anyone. Keith doesn’t want Lance to misunderstand. Keith likes Lance.

…

Keith likes Lance?

“Lance,” Keith says, softer than Lance has ever heard Keith speak. He brushes a thumb across Lance’s cheek. “Why are you crying?”

Lance is crying? “Sorry,” he says, after a long moment of not knowing what to say. “I’m just kind of overwhelmed, I guess.” He can feel the tears rolling down his cheeks, now.

Keith says Lance’s name again, even softer, and then pulls Lance into his chest. Lance only cries for a little bit longer before he starts to feel like he has the tiniest grasp on the situation.

Lance pulls back, but Keith continues to rub circles into his back. “Wait. How long have you known that I…?”

Keith wipes away the rest of Lance’s tears and then says, “Since a month after we moved in together, maybe.”

“ _Keith_ ,” Lance whines, “that’s literally before _I_ knew.” Keith smiles. “So, uh… you like me?” Keith nods. “And you knew I liked you.” It’s surprisingly easy to say. Keith nods again. “And so you decided to _torture_ me?”

“I probably took it a little too far at times,” Keith starts.

“Uh, _yeah_ ,” Lance says, cutting Keith off. “I would say that ‘sometimes’ and ‘a little’ are both putting it too lightly.”

“Probably. But it was just so fun to see you get so embarrassed.” Lance can feel his face start to flush. Now that Lance knows that Keith has been teasing him on purpose, he can see that Keith is very pleased by this reaction. He leans in closer. “You get really red,” he whispers, “and it’s really cute.”

Lance hides his face in Keith’s shoulder, and Keith laughs. “ _Stop_ , oh, my God. I’m dying. You’re killing me. Physically.” Lance’s face is going to melt off.

“Sorry, sorry,” Keith laughs. He runs a hand through Lance’s hair, and that basically makes up for it. They stay like this for a while as Lance continues to process what’s happening.

“So…” Keith makes a noise to signal that he’s listening. “What now?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you liked me, and you knew that I liked you, and you didn’t do anything, so… did you just, like… not want to do anything about it? Are you just telling me this so that I understand, or are you trying to say something else?”

Keith sighs. “You’re right. I’m not very good at this.” Lance wants to protest that that isn’t what he said, but Keith continues before he can. “I wanted to ask if you would like to go out with me sometime. This Friday, maybe, when both of our schedules are free.”

Lance peeks up at Keith. “Go out, like, on a date?”

Keith gives a smile that makes Lance’s bones turn into jelly. “Yes, Lance.”

“Oh,” Lance whispers. He hides his face again. “Um. Yes. That sounds really nice.”

They stay like that for another minute, maybe longer, before Keith says, “Lance.”

“Mm?”

A hand on Lance’s cheek guides him into looking up. Keith is looking right at him and Lance feels pinned all over again. “Can I kiss you?”

Lance squeaks. “Do you, like, are you sure? Um. Like, do _you_ want to? One hundred percent?”

“God, you’re so adorable.” K.O. “Yes, I’m sure. One hundred percent.”

Lance breathes out. “Okay.”

“Okay?” Keith asks. Lance nods.

Keith presses a sweet, slow kiss below Lance’s left eye, and then below his right, and Lance closes his eyes. Keith kisses Lance’s forehead, and hair, and temple, and chin, and nose, and ears, and Lance is pretty sure that he ascends through at least four planes of existence. Then Keith presses his lips to Lance’s. Lance loses all sense of time and place and probably becomes immortal for a moment.

Keith pulls back from the chaste kiss and then presses in again, tilting his head and opening his mouth and overwhelming Lance’s senses in the best way possible. Lance opens up in response to every touch, holding onto Keith’s shoulders even though all the strength has left his body. The only reason Lance is still vertical is because he leaned all of his weight against Keith, who responded in turn by wrapping his arms around Lance’s waist and pulling him even closer. Lance decides that this is his favorite place in the world to be, close to Keith, and less than an hour ago Lance would never have imagined that he would know what this feels like. As Keith shifts against him, it feels like the sun, and as Keith’s mouth moves in time with his, it feels like the ocean. As Keith murmurs compliments on Lance’s skin, it feels like the sky.

Lance is steadily filled with the knowledge that this is real until he’s brimming with it and he has to pull back. Keith laughs as Lance peppers kisses all over his face.

“Not to put the wagon in front of the horse or anything,” Lance says, later, when Keith and Lance are lying down facing each other on his bed. Their hands are intertwined between them. “But are we boyfriends?”

Keith smiles in a way that has fast become Lance’s favorite Keith smile of all time. “I would love to be your boyfriend.”

Lance barely holds back a giggle, but he doesn’t manage to hold back a huge grin. “Sweet.”

“Mm, like you.”

Lance’s pulse skyrockets. “ _Oh_ , my God, you can’t just say something like that, all low and, like, two inches away from me.”

“It’s true, though,” Keith says, idly running a thumb back and forth across Lance’s palm. “You even taste sweet.”

“Keith, please,” Lance whines. Keith leans forward and presses their lips together, which, wow, isn’t what Lance was asking for, but he’s not going to complain.

Later that night, Keith quietly admits that he loves Lance. Lance cries a little bit, but Keith wipes away the tears, and Lance says that he loves Keith, too.

Lance wonders aloud if they’re moving too fast, since they technically just got together a few hours ago. Keith says maybe, do you want to slow down? Lance says no, and Keith says that he doesn’t want to, either. He says that them being together like this has been in the making for a long time, and Lance silently agrees. They fall asleep like that, encompassing each other.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading :) They are gay, and now you know.
> 
> Let me know what you think !


End file.
